Joe Duggan (Reporter)RUMOURS of a shooting caused a stampede of terrified Semana Santa revellers in Malaga early on Tuesday morning.
Two people were injured as hundreds spilled along Calle Carreteria and Tribuna de los Pobres around two am after rumours spread of gunshots and a car being driven at high speed towards the crowd.
Around 100 people took refuge in a police headquarters on La Rosaleda avenue as hysteria gripped the crowd.
A fight is believed to have triggered the crowd’s panic.
One witness reported seeing people running ‘in all directions’ with petrified Semana Santa musicians dropping their instruments.
Malaga Town Hall’s councillor for Security Mario Cortes said: “We shouldn’t draw conclusions from what people say, but follow the reports of the security forces.”
He added: “Becase of the collective hysteria of the times we live in people jumped to the wrong conclusion.”
One witness Daniel Lopez told Diario Sur: “At the start there was a fight between two or three youths, but in a matter of seconds more and more people joined in.
“This created panic that extended so quickly, we have hardly been able to work out what happened.”
It comes after a number of high-profile European terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, Nice, London and Stockhom.
No arrests were made following the incident in Malaga, which happened at the start of Spain’s week-long Easter processions.
